Shiite Militias in Iraq Back Off Boycott Over U.S. Strikes on ISIS

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As smoke rose from Tikrit on Friday, Iraqi forces prepared to attack Islamic State positions. A spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said militias would work to recapture the city.CreditKhalid Mohammed/Associated Press

BAGHDAD — A day after several Shiite militias quit the offensive against the Islamic State in protest of American airstrikes, senior Iraqi leaders made assurances on Friday that the militiamen would adhere to government command and cooperate with the American role.

Buoyed by a message of support from Iraq’s powerful Shiite religious leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pointedly announced that the popular mobilization committees, as the militias are called, would cooperate with the American role in the battle to recapture Tikrit from militants.

“Everything was explained to the popular mobilization committees, so the decision to seek the assistance of the coalition was explained to them, and the prime minister’s instructions were clear,” said Rafid Jabouri, a spokesman for Mr. Abadi. “The prime minister is the commander in chief of the armed forces, and the popular mobilization committees should be operating under the commander in chief, in full cooperation with the Iraqi armed forces.”

That message seemed to be quickly picked up on the ground in Salahuddin Province, around Tikrit. Even an alleged friendly fire episode in which an American airstrike reportedly killed at least three federal policemen and killed and wounded an undetermined number of militiamen late Thursday did not arouse much of a reaction.

The supposed airstrike casualties were reported by the Salahuddin Operations Command, a joint headquarters in charge of the fight for Tikrit. But on Friday, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, the militia that was reportedly hit at its posts at the Tikrit university campus, denied that it had lost any men from an American airstrike.

Asked to discuss the episode, an Asaib Ahl al-Haq official in the area said only, “These are sensitive issues, and I cannot comment.” Just a day earlier, the militia’s leaders were loudly complaining that the Americans would most likely target them on purpose or by accident.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq was one of four important Shiite militias that announced Thursday that they would not cooperate with the Tikrit offensive after the Americans became involved. Together, they represented more than a third of the 30,000-strong Iraqi force besieging Tikrit.

While the American military had demanded the withdrawal of Shiite militias, many of which had Iranian advisers, before it would begin airstrikes on Tikrit, American commanders have quietly acknowledged that at least some of the militias would eventually play a crucial part in subduing Tikrit on the ground.

The biggest of the militias, the Badr Organization, which is close to Iran and also a major supporter of the Iraqi government, warned on Thursday that it might pull out, potentially weakening the pro-government force. But on Friday, the militia’s leadership appeared to step back from that brink. “We haven’t retreated from our positions near Tikrit,” said Mueen al-Kadhumi, a senior leader of the group. “We won’t lift the siege against ISIS so that they can escape; we will chase them and kill them after the Americans stop the airstrikes in Tikrit.” The Islamic State is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Mr. Kadhumi maintained, however, that the American airstrikes were unnecessary. “We were one day away from liberating the city of Tikrit before the American-led coalition intervention, and now there is a sense of confusion,” he said.

According to witnesses and Iraqi officials, airstrikes on Friday included coalition warplanes as well as Iraq’s small air force in bombing throughout the morning and afternoon. The day before, only Iraqi aircraft were hitting targets around Tikrit during daylight hours, while Americans or other coalition aircraft were bombing at night.

Both nighttime and daytime bombing on Thursday was particularly heavy, residents said, and officials said it was concentrated against Islamic State positions in and around the heavily fortified former palace of Saddam Hussein.

The Shiite militias’ shift from truculence to acquiescence in Tikrit seemed tied to remarks at Friday Prayer in Karbala by a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Ayatollah Sistani had issued an edict that called for creating the popular mobilization committees last summer, when Baghdad and even Iraq’s religious shrines in Karbala and Najaf appeared under threat and the regular Iraqi military was on the verge of collapse.

His remarks on Friday, though, were widely interpreted as criticizing the militias for their objection to the Iraqi government’s request for American air support. “The security commanders in the field must get together and talk with the supreme command of the armed forces to always take the right decision,” said Ahmed al-Safi, a spokesman for Ayatollah Sistani. “Having disagreements among the different sides could have bad results on military operations.”

While those criticisms were delivered with indirection, as the ayatollah’s pronouncements always are, his message was clear.

“The essential part of the mandate for the popular mobilization committees was the fatwa that was issued by Ayatollah Sistani,” said Mr. Jabouri, the prime minister’s spokesman. “So we’re saying that it’s very important that this message has also been endorsed by the marjiya.” The marjiya is a term for Ayatollah Sistani’s religious leadership.

Still, not every militia seemed to agree. The Nujabaa Brigade, an Iranian-linked organization with seasoned fighters who have fought on behalf of the Syrian government, stuck by its insistence that it would not pull out of its positions in Tikrit and might attack American planes even though they were bombing their Islamic State enemy. “We have the weapons to do that, and the Americans know that we do,” Hashim al-Mousawi, a spokesman for the group, said on Friday.

An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Salahuddin Province, and Helene Cooper from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Iraqi Leader Says Forces Will Aid U.S. in ISIS Fight. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe